setting sail. park geun-hye has been inaugust rated as president of south korea. she's the first woman to lead the country. welcome to nhk world "newsline." tens of thousands of people have gathered together in seoul to witness history. they witnessed park geun-hye become president of south korea. a job her father once held. she vowed to boost the economy and address the challenges presented by north korea. nhk world anna jung reports. ♪

>> reporter: the inauguration ceremony began with a variety of festivities. one of the more recognizable performers was the latest star, psi. he became a global sensation because of his song and video, gangnam style. ♪ park geun-hye appeared nearly two hours into the ceremony. she laid out the vision and goals of her administration. south korea developed quickly under her father. it was dubbed the miracle on the han river. park pledged to make a second miracle on the han river. >> translator: the new administration will usher in a new era of hope, premised on a revitalizing economy, the happiness of our people and the blossoming of our culture.

one of my critical economic goals is to ensure anyone that works hard can stand on their own two feet. through the support of policies designed to strengthen small and medium-sized enterprises such businesses can prosper alongside large companies. >> reporter: park used the phrase trust building to express her policy on north korea. she insists that process can happen through dialogue and honoring promises that have been made already. >> translator: north korea's recent nuclear test is a challenge to the survival and future of the korean people. and there should be no mistake that the biggest victim will be none other than north korea itself. it is my sincere hope that north korea can progress together as a responsible member of the international community instead of wasting its resources on nuclear and missile development

and continuing to turn its back to the world in self-imposed isolation. >> reporter: park recognized that tension and conflict exists in asia. the president didn't specifically mention the friction her country has experienced with japan such as a territorial dispute. but she did say she would work to strengthen trust with japan along with other nations such as the united states, china and russia. about 70,000 people gathered to attend park's inauguration. many of them want her to address the growing income gap between rich and poor and they want her to stabilize relations on the korean peninsula. >> translator: i won a place at the inauguration online. i just graduated from university but haven't found a job yet. i hope our new president will focus on job creation. >> translator: i'm concerned

about north korea. they seem to be doing things to provoke other countries, so i hope park's government can resolve these issues. >> reporter: park has now moved into the blue house where she spent part of her 20s when her father was president. after she hosted a party with south korean politicians and foreign dignitaries, the festivities will be over and she will have to start putting her promises into practice. anna jung, nhk world, seoul. park inherits a host of challenges and some are wondering whether she will fare any better than her predecessor, lee myung-bak. lee hongchun, professor at keio university, drew insights from park's inaugural speech. we have some insights from park's inaugural speech. >> she mentioned five times on the political agenda. those are things i noticed.

>> she used the expression three times. i think she was showing how determined she is to get the economy back on track. but it also has negative connotations. because he was a dictator, it may make south koreans wonder whether their new president is going to progress. she may give priority to economic development and not tighten the gap between the rich and the poor. drastic change in south/north relations is unlikely.

north korea chief economic development as the country formally to kim jong-il powered the development of -- that's why the north has it. president park mentioned the south would seek to have dialogue with the north. i think this indicated a difference from the previous administration and shows steps south korea will work to create a new channel with north korea. she will strengthen south korea's alliance with the united states. >> i expected because she used the word in her inauguration speech.

she underscores her resolve to build mutual confidence with japan. south korea's relationship with japan have been strained by different interpretations of history. park's mention of japan suggests she wants to build solid relations with japan. park's speech underlined her intention to push economic rejuvenation and happiness for the south korean people. how much public support she will win depends on how well she delivers on a promise.

japan's prime minister has named his next choice for his next bank of japan chief. he plans to nominate haruhiko kuroda. he served as finance minister from 1999 to 2003. he moved to the adb two years later. the meeting was the first with a leading figure from take juan since jinping became general secretary of the communist party last november. the meeting held behind closed doors. but the central news agency says they will push for peaceful unification. xi's predecessor, hu jintao also worked with taiwan. the communist party decided in november it will seek to develop mutual trust at the military level and also aim to sign a peace accord with taiwan. cradle of culture, economic powerhouse. many enjoy the fruits of

prosperity along the path to a new china. but millions are still missing out and public discontent is growing. against that back drop, officials are choosing a fresh slate of government leaders, ne newsline will bring you continuing coverage of incoming president xi jinping's new administration. don't miss "china: change and challenge." israeli leaders are showing they're ready to defend their country against a wider range of threats. they successfully tested a new type of anti-ballistic missile. israeli officials announced the test of an interceptor. they developed the weapon with the united states. the arrow three is designed to shoot down ballistic missiles in outer space at higher altitudes than previous models.

it's also believed to be more effective against missiles armed with nuclear and other nonconventional warheads. israeli leaders repeatedly said they haven't ruled out military intervention to stop iran from developing nuclear weapons. analysts consider this a threat to iran's medium range ballistic missile which can reach targets in israel. cuban president raul castro says he'll step down at the end of his second term in 2018. raul's older brother fidel castro made a rare appearance at the assembly. he wants key roles to be passed down in a gradual and organized way. >> translator: this decision represents a definitive step toward the configuration of the nation's future leadership.

the assembly named 52-year-old miguel cana l. raul's elder brother former president fidel castro also made a rare appearance at the assembly. the leader of cyprus' largest opposition party has won a runoff. he called to rebuild economies hard hit by the debt crisis. the runoff called in the mediterranean nation after no candidates received a majority in the earlier elections. the election commission says nickolas anastasias took more than 50% of the vote. it's about 15 points more than his leftist rival milas. he is the head of the opposition democratic rally party, and he campaigned for prompt austerity

measures for a bailout deal with the european union. cyprus asked the eu and others for a bailout package last june, but have yet to reach a deal. and now to the latest on the academy awards held sunday night in los angeles. this 85th edition saw the triumph of "argo" directed by ben affleck. it won in the best picture and two other categories. "argo" competed against several high-profile features including steve spielberg's "lincoln" and "zero dark 30." ben affleck's film received two more oscars in the film editing and adapted screenplay categories. ang lee snatched best director for "life of pi". it received the largest number of awards. there were a total of four

oscars. daniel day-lewis' portrayal of abraham lincoln earned him the best actor award. he was the first man to be awarded three oscars in this category. media in iran have criticized "argo" for being what they call a highly fictitious account of the crisis and portraying iranians as evil. our correspondent in tehran says iranian producers are working on their own version of the story. japan's prime minister named his choice for the next bank of japan chief. he plans to nominate haruhiko kuroda. he served as finance minister from 1999 to 2003. he moved to the adb two years

later. he's currently serving his third term as president. he has been a strong supporter of more monetary easing. the prime minister also floated the names of potential nominees for the central bank's two deputy governors. one is gakushuin university professor kikuo iwata. he has criticized the bank of japan. he's a firm believer in bold monetary easing. the other nominee is hiroshi nakaso. he helped stabilize japan's financial system after a major securities firm failed in the late 1990s. he's a fluent english speaker. he has chaired a committee at the bank for international settlements. abe mentioned his choices in a meeting with liberal democratic party secretary general. he asked him to seek support from opposition party members so the nominees can be presented to the diet for approval.

prime minister abe woke up at home after several days in washington. he returned after delivering an important message to u.s. president obama. nhk world explains. >> reporter: shinzo abe has vowed to get the economy growing again during his second shot at power. the prime minister told americans that he was back and so was japan. he and president barack obama issued a statement that signaled abe might be leaning towards joining the asians on the transpacific partnership. they said japanese officials would not have to abolish tariffs on rice or other agricultural products before beginning the talks. abe told obama he may increase defense spending. he said he's even considering allowing japan to exercise its right to collective self-defense, the right to defend an ally under attack. the official position of the japanese government is that collective self-defense is

against the constitution. abe explained japan's position on the senkaku islands. japan purchased the islands in september. chinese ships have entered japanese waters around them repeatedly over the last several months. >> translator: president obama and i agree that to cooperate, defend free waters and to establish order based on law and not force. at the same time, the relationship with china is one of the most important for japan. >> reporter: japan is locked in a territorial dispute with south korea over the takeshima islands in the sea of japan. abe sent deputy prime minister taro aso to seoul to start afresh with new president park geun-hye. abe sent former prime minister last week to pave the way for long standing discussions with russia. abe will meet later this year with president vladimir putin to discuss the northern territories which are controlled by russia and claimed by japan. abe and obama agree to cooperate on another source of concern. they said they'll work through the u.n. secretary council toward tougher sanctions on

north korea. they have urged leaders in pyongyang to stop the provocations but those leaders have already signaled their intentions to defy those warnings. president obama endorsed the japan-u.s. alliance as the central foundation for regional security. abe agreed it worked to their mutual benefit. >> china has strongly rejected statements by abe on the senkaku islands. japan's prime minister said during his visit to washington that his country has clear historical and legal sovereignty over the senkaku islands in the east china sea. japan controls the territories. china and taiwan claim them.

abe made the remark in a speech at a research institute in washington on friday. >> translator: no matter what excuses are made, japan cannot change the fact that it illegally occupies chinese territory. >> they said the ministry will urge japan to address the issue correctly and work to improve bilateral relations. abe also mentioned the issue of a military base relocation in his talks with president obama. they will move the futenma air corps station in line with bilateral agreement.

the okinawa governor has criticized the government for going ahead with a plan, despite local opposition. it calls for moving the base from ginowan city to nago city. the japanese government has been struggling to designate final disposal sites for radioactive waste generated by the fukushima nuclear accident. local residents are opposed to burying radioactive materials on their territory. now they are he will think the way they collect the storage sites. the environmental agency wants to ask each prefecture to dispose of contaminated mud and ash to the incinerators. it hopes to build five sites. two state-owned forests are possible sites.

but opposition from the host municipalities blocked both projects. senior environmental minister says officials will include the opinions of local leaders in the decision making process. >> translator: i must admit there was a lack of communication between the central and local governments on the choice of disposal sites. >> reporter: they will seek advice from experts and they want to conduct drilling surveys to narrow down the choice of final disposal sites. aim images on very large screens should be getting sharper soon. there is ultra high definition images on screens of over 160 inches. company officials say the new 4-k resolution technology will

produce images that are much sharper with the number of pixels four times more than high defending images. until now they explained such images couldn't have been produced on screens of more than 160 inches with the use of projectors. finer images and smoother moments have been made possible by sending more information into each pixel. >> translator: we're trying to create images that will impress human brains powerfully, our brains will react to. i want to propose this technology towards creative motivation. >> 4k tvs have been developed already. sharp plans to develop proje projectors now. communications ministry is set to start 4k resolution broadcasting on satellite channels next year. the first japanese automobiles assembled at a russian plant in the far east have been shipped out on the siberian railways.

they are now on their way to us moscow. the plant is run by a 50/50 joint venture between japanese trading house and russian car manufacturer. toyota asked the joint venture to build its cars and the plant began production last week. it aims to make 1,000 units a months. russia's car market is growing pretty fast. new sales of car sales totaled over 2.9 million, up more than 10% from the previous year. sales are approaching those of germany which totaled more than 3 million units last year. the biggest in europe. a cyclone is threatening the northwest coast of australia this week. robert speta is here with the forecast there and elsewhere. robert? >> gene, yeah. we're going to be seeing significant travel delays in the central u.s., even extending off towards the northeast and

southern canada by the end of the week due to this area. that is creating a lingering threat of heavy rain showers throughout the week. that is the actual movement of the storm. near the center of circulation, winds upwards and above 100 kilometers per hour, expecting this to intensify by wednesday when it starts to make land fall as a category 4 cyclone. winds around 160, gusting up to 180 kilometers per hour. in the right front quadrant, you're going to be seeing that risk of storm surge and heavy rains adding up to about three -- 300 to 400 millimeters. that is going to cause flooding in the kimberly coast. this area is very dry. that flash flooding risk is going to continue to linger. the threat of damage and loss of life out here if this does make a direct impact, it's going to be rather significant. definitely a storm system to watch throughout the remainder of the week. let's look further to the north.

talk about snowfall in and across japan. that's due to that sea effect snow. it's starting to taper off. unfortunately, another system is going to come in from the west. this is bringing heavy rainfall at times. nothing too severe. but moderate rain showers, rather persistent, locally heavy here. heading over even in the tokyo area. throughout your day on wednesday, you're going to be seeing rain, even a flurry or two very well could fall here as temperatures start to warm up. you see that's going up to 11 and even 14 degrees here on thursday. accompanied by partly cloudy ski skies. now take a look at europe. single digit semz hetomorrows h. even poland and western france and a low pressure area continuing to linger across italy. it's not just the messy weather that we're continuing to see. i want to take a look at the

geologic activity that is currently going on here, rather impressive show here on mt. etna. this was taken actually on sunday. it is the fifth eruption in the last few days as it shot lava one kilometers into the air. one of those good shows of mother nature you can see at least from a distance. now as far as temperatures though, rome and athens, you're getting up to the double digits here. single digits off to the north. remaining rather on the cold side. take a look at the americas where we have a storm system developing here. this is creating travel weather impact. anybody flying across the u.s., either southern canada this week, a storm to watch. that's going to spin up, pull to the northeast. we'll have heavy snowfall in and around oklahoma and texas panhandle. 10 to 20 centimeters is occurring here. to the south, some fire danger there in southern texas.

that's all going to interact with moist air. severe weather spinning up yet again. we're talking about risk of tornadoes. golf ball sized hail. 100 kilometer per hour winds. really a serious storm. not one you want to take lightly here as it pushes to the northeast. to the south, warm temperatures in place. and off towards the north, take a look at winnipeg, minus three here on your monday. that's a look at your world weather. here's the extended forecast.

more than one million people gathered in taiwan to see the start of an annual lantern festival. the festival is part of the celebrations for the lunar new year. they lit more than 10,000 lanterns. a highlight was a 20 meter high lantern in the shape of this year's chinese zodiac symbol the snake. >> translator: the lanterns are so colorful. this festival shows taiwan's unique culture. >> translator: my son was so curious. he couldn't take his eyes off the lanterns. >> the lanterns will be lighting up the night until march 10th. we're back in 30 minutes with more on the latest. i'm gene otani. for all of us here at nhk world, thanks for joining us.